Schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education across the country will take part in a cryptic crossword contest from April 18.

Organised by a Extra C (an organisation in Patna) and CBSE, the Patna round of the competition, called CCCC (CBSE Cryptic Crossword Competition), will take place on April 26.

The contest is for students between classes IX and XII. The contest will kick off from DPS Ranchi and the preliminary rounds will conclude in Bhubaneswar on September 2.

Seven rounds will take place in Bihar and Jharkhand. While the Bokaro and Jamshedpur rounds (in Jharkhand) are scheduled for April 19 and April 25, respectively, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur rounds (in Bihar) will take place on April 19, April 21 and April 25, respectively.

Each team will comprise two students who will have to solve a cryptic crossword puzzle in 60 minutes.

CCCC director (legal and PR) Kushagra Singh said students should start preparing for the city rounds for a better chance at getting to the final rounds. "If a student spends only 15 minutes on crosswords daily, they will easily qualify the first round," he said.

"There will be clues from current affairs, history and geography."?

The registration for the competition will begin from April 8 and students can register for the contest by visiting the website www.crypticsingh.com. The grand finale will be held in Delhi in November. Delhi Public School-Patna won the Bihar city rounds in the previous two editions of the competition.

Pratibha Kumari, a Class IX student of Krishna Niketan, said she often played a-clue-a-day games and solved crosswords in the newspaper.

"I solve online crosswords for entertainment," she said. "It helps me increase my vocabulary. I learn new words everyday and try to use it while conversing."

Like Pratibha, Himanshu is also excited about the competition.

"The school will select the students for the city round," said the Class X student of GD Goenka Public School. "I tried last year too, but did not make it. I am surer of my chances this year because I have been practising with crossword books."

The winning team (national level) will be awarded a prize of Rs 25,000 each along with trophies and certificates. The first runners-up will bag a cash prize of Rs 15,000 cash each and Rs 10,000 each will be awarded to the teams that bag the third and fourth positions .